Black Lives Matter - The TryPod Ep. 62

bramble thanks to honey for sponsoring today's episode of the podcast hello and welcome to the tripod today this is not a comedy podcast we are recording this on Wednesday June 3rd eight days of protests have followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis the latest in an unfortunately packed history of police brutality and police killing of an unarmed black man so now we've seen protests in all 50 states though I don't think that quite captures the full picture of what's happening right now over a hundred cities across the country and global participation from places from France all the way to New Zealand so today we want to take a moment to talk about the black lives matter movement what we think this moment means for whatever our perspective is worth our own history of racism and anti racism as its impacted our lives as well as first-hand accounts from being at the protests this week this is something that I think you are already thinking about I hope you're already thinking about it this has touched your life in one way or another so let's let's dive in guys you know la has been a big place where there's been a lot of protests a lot of you know police presence at those protests we have the National Guard here we've had curfews every day since Saturday with two days ago a curfew beginning at 1:00 p.m. in certain parts of the city which I you know I resent that as a curfew that feels like a lockdown not a curfew but it's one o'clock you finish lunch and then that's that's the end of your day like that's wild to me but yeah we wanna you know I know some of us were able to go out there and protest and we saw some things some things were very inspiring here's one thing I want to say is that like there's a big depiction of violence around the country that is not the case with 99% of the protests in fact 100% of the protests are nonviolent there are other things happening that show violence but I think if you're thinking I want to go protest I want to participate but I'm afraid of the violence you shouldn't be you should go out there and join and you know seeing a lot of people out there protesting will help make a difference so don't be afraid of of that and if you are afraid anything with violent at the protest it's unfortunately the police which is that's disheartening I think to see to see the amount of violence we've been able to see shared on Twitter and on the news it's it is scary and it's scarier that it's the people who are supposed to protect us so maybe we should start on the first kind of really big protest a couple of you were able to go to the one in West Hollywood and this was I would say like the first big display from LA in terms of protest which was I mean like this was all over the news and and very big and obviously like there was lots of news coverage about it but what was your experience being there and kind of walking with people in Pacific Park was very crowded we had multiple speakers from black lives matter and at some point after about an hour of speakers the crowd started moving in about like a two and two and a half mile loop around West Hollywood and that's probably when people started seeing more from news coverage particularly once a car was lit on fire which happened about a block behind me and that was already about four hours five hours into the peaceful protest and that in itself already was a little suspect because no one knew where that car came from it just appeared out of nowhere it was just sitting there but and I'm when my old cop car and an engine and the rarest form of protest but we had only engaged in a very peaceful very moving protest there were there was a really beautiful moment where a lot of the the lead protesters were sitting with their fists raised in an intersection and everyone sat around them in a circle and that was really powerful to see I was first afraid to go to the park because we're in the middle of a pandemic and I was afraid of being around that many people but once I heard that the March had started we went by to check it out we saw that people were 99 percent masks it was something that was a very cool to be a part of we are in the middle of a pandemic if you look at how the police are outfitted and the response to peaceful protesting across the country and if you look at the response to Co vid the police are it look like somebody Avengers they look like they are decked out they have every [ __ ] gear that they could possibly imagine and doctors people who are saving people from the pandemic are wearing trash bags and using like household supplies to try to save lives and I think that that is really like to me that's such a clear distinction of what is important to administration to government and to people that work for us because we're paying for all of it we are paying taxes we are paying you know it's like they work for us but for some reason this is so flipped upside down commit our tax dollars actually go where we want them to go Jesus it's insane the one thing I think that incited you know made me so upset is when Becky and I were like okay it was a little too congested for us just for the kovat situation so we're like let's go further away let's just walk along Beverly Boulevard ourselves with some other small people with signs and just walk back and forth and we got to the CBS parking lot the parking lot for James Corden's late night show and saw that there were a lot of police sort of packed into there and we also saw a very dangerous driving by police to get into there so they would be flying down the street with their sirens blaring as if they were rushing to help somebody but they were actually just rushing to go Park in CBS together but they were driving in ways I saw them nearly hit two pedestrians yes yes the studio near the Grove was their parking lot was basically being used as a military base of the army and I was more than I've not the army started of the police but it was the National Guard was starting to come in at that time ice not only saw policemen laughing having fun being very excited I the first thing I saw when I walked by was a cop get out and he took his baton and just thwacked it in his hand on the other side of the fence during a protest he's there to be violent I saw them all laughing none of them were wearing masks which was just bonkers to me and then you know I'm seeing all these people who know these police motorcycle brigades careening into this place and then I start seeing this sort of military s trucks and men holding the smoke the tear gas like cannons the bigger ones and two of them drove by pointing it at us on the sidewalk I wasn't filming at that time but like I had a grenade launcher pointed at me off of a car not the guy on top a guy on the side and then another cop car went by and they were waving from the backseat of their car they're there to like make people upset scare them make them angry and it worked I was like okay I don't want to be in this situation where I could be walking on a street not a part of the main protest and have a gun aimed at me so then we kept walking and then I did film against I saw another brigade coming and I saw another guy on top with what a pepper bullet gun and it was pointed at the opposing sidewalk at people on the ground just as they were driving just wild things yeah I guess this is the thing I want to dive right into and I'm glad you brought us there Keith because I've been tiptoeing around it for the first you know 5 to 10 minutes of this the narrative that I have seen play out on the news this past week I've been watching a lot more news and local news than I've ever watched is the horror of violent protests and this narrative of not protests of riots of of out-of-control looting and as we were only here in Los Angeles I can only speak from firsthand of my own experiences and the first-hand accounts that I've been watching on Twitter that have shocked me from across the country that ain't the story the story right now is flagrant misuse of police force and of brutality against citizens of using rubber bullets and tear gas and flash bangs and military force to disperse peaceful crowds of people who are protesting police brutality it is a police brutality protests that is being met with police brutality on a scale that we have never seen in this country it's just it's sickening it's the the very thing that we're protesting we're seeing played out at a massive scale and and the fact there's there's no reason why police should have needs for these sort of like militarized equipment armored vehicles and like full full riot gear there's all this there's all this research that shows that when police have escalatory tactics and come decked out in they're like military gear that that is what escalates the violence you know there there was there were some images from Miami of policemen that are just in their their normal uniforms and you know simple surgical masks kneeling with protesters and like that that is that is a much better situation than the LA Police which are coming with tear gas and rubber bullets and like what you expect is going to happen police people and I will say keep walking home felt threatened feel threatened it's going to break out into violence situation and there's my new videos on social media where it's like one small time there was I think it was Seattle where it's like a policeman grab somebody's umbrella and then it turns into ten seconds later at the end of the higher line of policemen shooting to your grass and flash bombs and like it is it's awful yeah went to the Saturday protest I went to the protests that were happening yesterday particularly felt more inflamed since Trump decided to essentially declare police state but I think what is really telling about this moment is that so many more people are really paying attention because of when it personally affects them which is why I think things like this idea of property damage or even looting is coming up because you know you think such a disenfranchise systematically burned-out community is going to get your attention we weren't here we'd nothing changed after Rodney King in 92 nothing changed after Trayvon Martin nothing changed after Phil Andra Castile nothing changed after all these incidents and they're the very few incidents that we actually saw some sort of accountability because it's magnified by being caught on camera or through social media but this stuff we had remember happens every single day and that's why the community is not only mad they are in a place where they're also just like tired of us only deciding to pay attention when it suddenly becomes a problem for us and I think that this is a reckoning that when people say I don't know how to approach this all right I'm so like de sir I mean you have the right to be disturbed but this has been the DNA of this country since Africans were involuntarily taken from their homes and dragged to be slaves for the people who founded this country like this is if anything this is the way this country should fall like if this is the end then it should fall in rebellion I'm sorry it is the comeuppance it is the repercussions of hundreds of years of black struggle and I can only in the smallest amount equate just the tiniest bit of my experience as a asian-american and as a gay person but to to be in this moment in which I think there's a lot of inspiring aspects to that people can come together and collectively support the black community is great but we also have to remember that this is a situation that we can't just tiptoe around anymore there's it's a situation that in any other way I can express is it's a long time coming you know and I think that there is a reckoning that unfortunately a lot of this has been inflamed by the power that has been in place I mean where was everyone where are we when we support things like taking away affirmative action from school applications where are we when we have gerrymandered districts where we when we see this group of people constantly being systematically abused and pushed down until we see someone walk out with a cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory we're like okay now I feel like don't please don't take my [ __ ] Lululemon's from Nordstrom's you know like this [ __ ] we have to remember that it's it's a response you know I mean this is a response it's a reaction and I think that again we have historically puts so much onus on the black community to both be the victims and then also the perpetrators of something that they never asked to be a part of to begin with it is wonderful to see many communities come together in support of that community and I think that we all have a lot of time right now to actually reflect on how we have either contributed to anti blackness and how we can alleviate that in the future because we do not want to see and this will probably happen 99% of everyone speaking out just on social media is gonna stop when this is over yeah we have to be banner wavers as those who are allies with out trepidation we have to you can't just type a tweet and feel like you're doing something you can't just send $50 I mean that's the most some people can do but you have to enact it in your daily lives we have to exemplify this in every single breath we take because they are not allowed to breathe that's the whole point of this and people out there all the [ __ ] you know people playing their bridge with their spritzers clutching their pearls over this like how do you think you [ __ ] got those pearls to begin with who bestowed you those pearls your parents your grandparents there has been something around black people's necks in this country that's been way tighter for hundreds of years and now it includes includes a [ __ ] policemen's mean it includes a policeman's knee down on [ __ ] George floette's neck there's no excuse anymore from anyone to try to negotiate black people's reaction their anger their voices in this we have to support and we also have to listen because this country has had way too much of white people talking over everyone else a lot to unpack and that that I agree with all of it there's this incredible an incredible article on The Root it's called a timeline of events that led up to the 2020 Fed uprising by Michael Harriet and it begins August 1619 with the first ship that landed on American shores with stolen people this there is no history of America there's no history of this moment without taking into context the history of our nation that is built on slavery and inequality and injustice and stolen lives there's a lot of outrage right now over there outrage but if you look at even the past 40 50 years we have in the 70s Nixon declares a war on drugs which he and his advisors openly stated was to one discredit an anti-war movement and to demonize the black community that's not something that was invented that's not an opinion that was their stated aim in the 80s the Reagan administration made that war on drugs literal and they cracked down on black families and black lives as the prison population exploded then in the 90s the Clinton administration to prove that Democrats could be just as hard on crime they took up that mantle and they militarized the police force they created policies that made it way easier to incriminate black people and keep them in prison for a long time the black lives matter movement began under the Obama administration we have had black people's livelihoods volley back and forth between Democrats and Republicans for years and nothing has happened it has just gotten worse and worse and worse so when you get to this moment and you say well guys there's a better way to protest what is it because they've been trying we've been trying Colin Kapernick annealed and everyone called him a monster so these shouts have gone unheard as a system has beat down on them they're [ __ ] mad as hell and guess what they should be what choice do they [ __ ] have you probably know honey's PayPal's new money-saving shopping tool but did you know that it does more than just automatically apply coupons to your cart it's a way to save and get free gift cards to some of your favorite stores here's how it works to shop like normal and let honey apply the best discount to your cart then whether a promo code is found or not you can earn honey gold honeys reward points let the go points pile up and cash out for free gift cards to source like Amazon Sephora Target and more this honey's way of passing even more savings on to you from the Commission it makes when you check out right now our listeners can head to join honeycomb / try guys and get 500 bonus gold points but only if you use our special URL just add honey to your browser and sign up for an account that's it then you can stack your savings get promo codes and gold points on the stuff you buy every day from new clothes to groceries to food delivery not using honey it's literally passing up free money add honey to your computer laptop for free @ join honey calm / try guys and get 500 gold points that's join honey calm / try guys I was ashamed of myself that I wasn't mobilized to the point even I am now which is still not enough until you know a car drove by and pointed a grenade launcher or a gun at me or I saw people laughing about the violence they were going to impact on other people I've seen videos of it but until I was on that sidewalk and I felt like someone was gonna take joy in harming my life I started to see just how scary it would be for somebody who feels that every day they walk out their door like every time they go to a store to buy something any time they're pulled over like I've never had a cop encounter where I was like well that went really great like you know I never and and I'm about as like cut and paste white like generic white guy as possible and you know I even they to me are dicks but that's it all they are to me yeah they're there harasser z' and murderers and this doesn't even go into the fact that the current you know jail and prison system is basically modern slavery and it it's it's built on that and it there's just so many horrific and justices so if you have interacted with us on Twitter and you're trying to say any kind of thing about how anything is you know they shouldn't be so mad or whatever I just I can't meet it with too much rational argument anymore because I'm seeing so many irrational things happening I would just meet it with where where are you choosing to channel your outrage yeah I don't think that any person is gonna stand here and say oh thank god buildings are getting destroyed but where is your outrage are you equally outraged that people are getting killed that that that that people are getting one at this moment attacked I have talked to family members and to friends who said that oh it's so horrible what's happening out there look how violent people are being and I go no no no I was there I've seen what's happened and what is happening is that the police are attacking peaceful protest and you may say well they would never do that that's crazy yeah it is crazy but that's what's happening on the block that I live on I saw five hundred police officers in military outfits in a coordinated sweep circle and surround a group of peaceful protesters some of whom were taking a knee all with their hands up chanting hands up don't shoot what do you think happened they were met with flash bangs and tear gas and rubber bullets and Eugene you were telling you what those rubber bullets actually are they're not they're not little pellet guns mm-hmm no those rubber bullets can blow out your eyes they can cut up essentially like take your lips off your face they're just metal balls they're essentially bullets covered in a thin layer of rubber and they're big they're like yeah [ __ ] huge and they're supposed to be ricochet bullets which means you shoot them at the ground you shoot them at a wall and you're aiming at people to be bounced to have it bounced out right so you lose at least if you have a ricochet you're gonna lose like 30% Wow you know of momentum and it's not but they're shooting it straight at people's faces there's like a three percent death rate from those and higher obviously if they're misused but I think even the proper use of them has a three percent fatality rate so like that's a large percent if you think you would only have to shoot 30 of those to potentially kill somebody and in terms of yeah I mean maybe I can speak to the rubber bullet so my friend of mine who was purchasing with we went to the Santa Monica protest word which were on Sunday so the day after the the we have practice and protest go on all through the night people are getting arrested all night curfews instated and at the Santa Monica one we uh we go and and it's also it's hard right it's a hard situation and this is something I'm trying to deal with right now we're like you have to pay attention to who's organizing the protest because that also matters and you don't want to go to a protest that's not super organized because sometimes that has more of a likelihood to turn into chaos because the police are prepared there they don't have organizers it's explicitly yelling don't instigate anything you know like it malsu to that point how do you how do people find that because I that's the thing I was struggling with for sure is trying to figure out where is the protest and right and it's a double-edged sword I would say that like a great resources just black lives matter la or black lives matter wherever you live there is a social media account for that and they are an organized group they have people who are professional organizers they know how to hold these protests they know how to have speakers they you know it's it's a little bit more organized and so the one I went to in Santa Monica was not that it was still organized though so it's hard because it's also like there was a huge protest in Hollywood yesterday that was this rapper yg who I am not really familiar with had promoted it and been like we're doing this protest and then he canceled the event 20 minutes before thousands of people still showed up so it's like that you know thousands upon thousands of people were still there and protesting and marching around Hollywood so it really we were there right exactly and so I heard it was cancelled but people were still there so I'm like [ __ ] it I'm going yeah and so the one I went to in Santa Monica was was organized but but not black last not organized so it was just slightly less but we were there and we're marching around right right near the water near all these insanely expensive houses and apartments and complexes in Santa Monica and at a certain point it became that we're just lined up next to the police line brig brigade and the the the thing kind of splinters off a march starts going down the street but people are still there we walk three minutes and then we hear explosions behind us they have tear gas the whole area they have shot rubber bullets all to advance their police line a hundred feet that that's all they and this is all before curfew this is a completely peaceful protest this is just to this is just to assert their dominance we get to move 100 feet we want we want this to be the over here and so it really was just like this was useless this did not need to happen there tear gassing and so we ran back because we thought there's still people over there maybe they need our help we have like I've milk in a mason jar in case you know it gets pepper sprayed you know I'm over there and it's crazy also that like as I'm preparing for these things I'm like well I got band-aids and milk in a mason jar hopefully maybe this is overkill maybe I'm just trying to live like this fantasy of being a protester and no that's not true there are people who are hurt and there are people who do need to get pepper sprayed who need milk in their eyes so we go back and we're there holding the line for you know another 15 minutes and this is probably this is all at two o'clock to 3 o'clock at this point is probably three o'clock and at 3:30 they established that the curfew was 4 p.m. which is not a curfew that's before the work dance it's [ __ ] ridiculous and were there people no notice no no I see the whole reason they do that by the way the reason that cops do this and and something we spoke about earlier about the kneeling and stuff like that the reason they do that is because they want an excuse to arrest everybody who's there so what they've done repeatedly throughout all these protests is they'll have a line of police the police protesters will be lined up they'll block off the exits and again a lot of this stuff that we're saying sounds like conspiracy theories I assure you it is not this is what they do because this is what they are trained to do because this is what they need to do to get their point across and we've tested their dominance and that's what they don't like so they'll create another line of police on the other side then they'll wait until the curfew and then they'll arrest everybody inside and that's because you can't escape and you try to get out and they go the roads closed off etc this is what they do repeatedly so we're there and thankfully then I can back that up that I experienced them trying to corner me I watched them trap and corner other people and when people try and leave they go you can go out south and then they go no I just went there and there's a blockade South right and this is that's what they are doing they are cornering people they are creating confusion they are scattering so they can pick people off and and undercut the size of the protests so that it doesn't seem as legitimate and frankly that is the confusion that allows in my opinion something like rampant looting to happen because now you have chaos and people running about in every direction and they go [ __ ] it okay the protest isn't working there are studies that show that people don't just spontaneously start rioting you know people that that loot they don't go there and then spontaneously decide to do that those are people that have consciously said that is my aim however the violence that I have seen has been initiated by police force and has been ramped up and not helped because of said force yesterday we were in Hollywood and someone shouted like hey the police office is that way let's go in front of there and one of the organizers shouted and said no we're going straight that's not why we came here pay attention and he you know there was one person in the crowd that was like trying to rally everyone and get him rattled up to go fight in front of a station that person was white and the yelling yeah yeah the person yelling to go to the police station was white the person who said no we're gonna continue this course was black I mean there's just a certain amount of I guess radical tourism happening for some young white kids it's weird the first protest that happened on Saturday when the curfew that was the first curfew that hit and there were people because I was dropping off a friend who lived in who lives in the heart of where the protest was in West Hollywood at 6:00 p.m. and I saw people arriving in their cars like four different cars as I was driving back and all of them were full of white like they were just arriving like they were not there at the protest they were just arriving to show up for whatever happened after curfew and that is like the most egregious display of white privilege like how can you get worse than that especially since the conversation around things like looting and property damage are inevitably gonna put on the shoulders again of black protesters it is and that's why when you see [ __ ] videos of like Jake Paul walking around a [ __ ] mall oh my god it's indefensible even if he's saying he didn't steal anything he's [ __ ] walking around holding his little vodka bottle from [ __ ] PF Changs yeah like that that [ __ ] the fact that also he probably doesn't think that he necessary denne thing wrong is exactly why he needs to be educated about it and the problem is is that it is essentially a place that he is representing of white privilege of where he is socioeconomically of where he is as a man a straight white man like he doesn't see it he's never seen it you know and I think that there is a larger conversation we had there about this idea and miles you hit on it of being aware of like what is sort of like this tourism of being a protester emotionally but I do think that just you showing up or us showing up is in the right place in terms of where our hearts lie yeah the black lives matter right and I think when we go to these places it's important to be a follower and not you're not a leader there I'm not a leader of the black lives matter movement I'm a follower and yesterday even like there was I was with that that same crowd I was actually ahead in the crowd once it was going east just because where we were when it changed direction and put us near the front and there was some confusion as to whether to go left or straight and begi and I start like people said to go left we're like okay you got it and then I said other people's like no we're gonna go this way like you got it and we literally were walking back and forth and we're like don't care just tell me where to go tell me where my body is a part of this massive number of people is gonna be most useful the only time you as a white person right now should be trying to step to the front of the line is if the front of the line has a bunch of black people about to be attacked by police you should insert yourself and be arrested instead I you know Becky and I are both or like it is never our goal to go to one of these places and be arrested but it should be our goal in this time to protect the people who are already under attack and if that means we need to be those people then we need to look at ourselves and say that our privilege will give us a safer experience than them so we should we should place ourselves there instead if you are now lie your job right now is to listen amplify voices and protect that's it yeah and I will say interesting thing I know I did say I think you think an interesting thing that played out on social media yesterday was the the black out squares thing and I I I'm sure everyone's familiar with it because you probably saw it on your timelines but I posted a black square at the beginning of the day because I was like this is what everyone's doing and then quickly I looked at Twitter I looked at all the people who were saying hey this is probably maybe not the right thing to do it's showing your solidarity but you're blacking out these other voices it's literally silencing them and so I deleted it and that's okay I saw this great thing on Twitter that was like if you're worried about trying to be an activist and you were worried you're gonna make a wrong step that's okay you can post something and delete it and realize that you were wrong and that's good and okay if you're not gonna be perfect of this right away it takes practice and you have to realize them you've made a misstep and also don't just post a black square but if you do something and you realize that it's wrong own up to it and also white people at protests stop stopping in front of the bunch of people and taking pretty Instagram photos that is not why you're there you're not there to be able to prove you were there you are there to be a part of honestly helicopter footage that shows how much support is out and like that is why you're there every person who stops like honestly if you are a black person doing that I totally get it you should because you were going to use that to show that for a different reason but if you're a white person glomming on to this and you're at if you're thinking about your your riot outfit or your protest outfit and how you know how you want to look cool that is so not you're not in the right place you're not thinking in the right place I appreciate that you were adding your voice to an argument but you're not adding it a hundred percent for the right reasons and you need to look at yourself and and stop doing that also I'm sure you all saw the video of the woman who walked up and pretended she was fixing like some one of the boards and then got right back in her car and says that'll be good for the Instagram thanks boys and then she went by guys matter whoo-hoo and it was like she has since been fired from where she was like a journalist of a university paper type thing and she was let go from that and obviously deleted all of her socials but it was like I literally people are filming her and she still goes through with it right it's the idea of avoiding performative activism rights just like you can't just post a black tile and then write and then get on with a lie because you oh I did it I'm in a lie you you need to share active resources that other people can help you know show up to protests donate sign petitions there's this really great thing circulating where within one minute you can get an email filled out with the exact text to email to Minneapolis DA's asking for justice so you know that and and I think you know Eugene you alluded to this is the idea of not anti racism of listening and learning from black voices and also trying to unlearn everything that you you know that society has kind of imbued with you that this sort of systemic racism that is permeating our society it's it needs to be an active choice in a daily confrontation because you know every single person in this society has had moments or things that have altered their perceptions even if consciously you are not engaging in destructive behaviors there's a pyramid of race spectrum of racist activities that was circulating 80% of them are quote-unquote socially acceptable the idea of anti racism is actually not a word I had heard before this week and I think it's a very powerful tool to use for yourself and to make sure that you are actively working to promote change both in your lives and in the people around you you know talk to your family members talk to your your friends that might think differently than you and make sure that and this is for us and people like us who have platforms and right now is to be lifting up the voices who can speak it better I'd saw yesterday I very mixed feelings about this Logan Paul having this podcast interview or he's talking about how he didn't realize we need to be anti-racist and people were sharing it it's like yes he's speaking the right thing however I just always warn with people who have a history of being incredibly manipulative and using things like this to boost their social profile so that we forget about how many racist things this man has done across the globe not just in this country but how he's an embarrassment to our country instead of sharing him there are thousands of black people who have been saying that and you've never shared them and you need to be sharing their voices they're the people who should be telling us what's what and not Logan Paul and it's he's just being manipulative I know that what he is saying is correct that is a good message to be saying but the person saying it is not the person we should be listening to say it yeah honestly we're only making this because we're trying to reach our audience but don't share this go seek out black voices on this novel because they're far more knowledgeable about it than we are and frankly those are the voices worth uplifting right now to Ned's idea of anti racism it's I think very hard for a lot of white people to accept even if they are liberal and quote-unquote woke that they have their own prejudices or that they have benefited from a racist system I've benefitted from racism my entire life I had to unlearn racism at a young age and this is something that happens and it continues to happen and you think it's gone and then you hear your cousin listen to someone on TV and go oh wow that man is so articulate and you don't realize the microaggression that even a sentence like that where you're assuming that black people aren't articulate I remember when I was when kindergarten maybe I was driving in the car with my mother I was in the backseat and we had a babysitter at that time who I adored her name was Paula she was a black woman and I must have heard this at school because it was circling around in my mind we were dropping her off at the train and I asked mom why are black people not as good as white people and she slammed on the brakes and sheep-like in the middle of an intersection and she turned around and she said where did you hear that I said at school and she said if I ever hear you say anything like that again I'm throwing you out of the [ __ ] car and Paula who I loved I loved her I didn't understand the words that I was saying and I saw the pain that it caused her that me even this little child who was innocent and I loved her that even at that early age I was already learning racism from the people around me and I am unbelievably grateful that I was brought home and had a stern talking-to I also you know credit my my Jewish upbringing with always looking for and standing up for the oppressed people of the world but it is so easy to go the other way and people don't stand up against it and they don't see the ways in which it's the ways in which they learn it I wonder a another like take on that story is what what did Paula do again for for you oh yeah I mean she was my babysitter that already is I mean you know where Elsie white family has the the black caretaker that's absolutely not lost on me either I have lived an unbelievably privileged life and I [ __ ] up a lot in my life the things I've been arrested for marijuana possession in New York City how did the cops treat me they laughed we had it they had a blast they they dropped a hand warmers on the ground to see if in handcuffs I could pick them up in the middle of winter in the prison cell they gave me a cellphone so I could take a selfie this was in college you know that's what happens and there are black Americans who are sentenced to prison for for possessing less than I was smoking in public I don't get away with that if I'm not a white kid and that's you know that that is further to the point of if you're at these protests and that's why you know it maybe we're listening this would be like Keith why would you say that we should be arrested instead of someone else is exactly that is that you you can use your privilege sometimes for good and and that is the only way you should be using it because unfortunately the system is unjust so in some of these instances that's the that's something you can do I don't want to go to jail obviously yeah I just hope that people who are seeing that a majority of the donation links that we're sharing that most people are sharing our bail funds yeah and those did not pop up because of the current protests they have been pre-existent bail funds because of the disproportionate amount of black people who are put into the prison system who are arrested and can't afford bail like that is something that has existed far far before this and often times if you're at one of these protests what happened was we're at the santa monica protest we pushed they teargas everybody we pushed back on the line we're holding there they do it again they throw flashbangs we move back and then the third time we come back people are still there and the cops are still there there are people at these protests that there's a number you can call in whatever city you're protesting in and they'll write the bail number on your arm so if you are a white and especially if you're a white person and you are at the front of that line trying to protect people who are black behind you you will have a number that if you get arrested you can call that number but to me that was just such an again this stuff sounds like it's like oh you gotta have the number like how self-aggrandizing and yes it is I'm sure it gives a boner to all the white protesters but it also can be helpful if you get you know in that situation which I have friends that have I mean the whole situation right now is there scary because we are seeing you know people all over the country stand up and we're seeing them being met with an equal amount equal or more so amount of violence against them and yet still there's the people who are being prosecuted for these murders I mean it would you think it would be very simple right how hard would it be to prosecute 3 or 4 people in this country but instead you are going to allow this to escalate constantly because you are unable to actually stand up for what is right as a police officer which is to always be protecting and serving the country and the people and if you can't bring three cops who have murdered somebody on camera to justice I you're never gonna have people be complacent anymore I don't think are at least I don't hope I I worry that these protests will and may need to last every day of this month because how can how can governors literally Laos to happen for 10 days and they know what the solutions are yeah and I mean we have an election in November this can last until then and potentially get even more fierce if ya up is a re-elected I mean I don't necessarily think either party is well equipped to there's there's no solve there's like band-aids we've like lightly placed over these issues but part of the reason we encourage you to speak to people at least within your circles is to to activate this this true anti-racist standpoint you have to influence those who you have like at least convened the era of so you have to look within your families to look within your friend groups and see those structures at play and know who that who you can get to listen to you and even if they don't agree with you which many of them won't it is important that they see that there is an aberration within their echo chamber that there is a representation of this alternative voice is very necessary voice in these bubbles that they exist in and a lot of these bubbles include people who can vote you know in the national election and I think that if they're not going to be by seeing what what is being portrayed on the news or what they're being fed on social media their son their daughter their brother their sister you know that's who at the very least they can get an opposing viewpoint from and pay attention to your local and state elections too I mean we have so much focus on the anger at the President and that's obviously very justified but at a local level they're there so many prosecutors judges police chiefs so much of that is is not appointed but elected so you have the opportunity to research and to organize who is going to support the movement and then make sure they're the ones that are getting elected and not the ones that are going to support police brutality yeah and the down ballot is so important for people to pay attention to and specifically I'm going to say white people because often we are the guiltiest of being like I don't care you know what all these people do but they do a lot and they do a lot too like even just your city council member of your neighborhood it you know helps vote on city budgets so it's very important if we are complacent to who gets elected then we are complacent to the things happening around us so you have to look and vocalize who you think should be voted for and why people should not be voted for and have discussions and I am gonna be I've been a little more aware of the down ballot but I'm gonna really try to do more than just the two days the day and a half I maybe spend on it when I have my mail-in ballot but really looking at and vocalizing who I think should be voted for instead of just voting for who I think I should be going for and I think we should keep protesting till November yeah well we'll I think share some resources and the notes for this episode there's a great episode of the daily which is a podcast in the New York Times talking about the challenges of reforming the police system and why what is the system in place that allows this to keep happening and frankly even people that have mayors governors police chief's that have run on a platform of reforming the police system have been unable to it is really ironclad system that I mean that you know don't take it from me listen I recommend you listen to that it's one of the many things that has educated me this week I thought I don't know if you guys saw Ben and Jerry's released a statement that was stunning and among the things that they called for was calling on Congress to pass HR 40 which is legislation creating a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination from 1619 to the President to the present and that goes back to what we start in the beginning like you cannot look at this as a 2020 issue or a 2007 this is this is the American issue this is something that we have not reckoned with since the beginning of this nation they talked about wanting to create a national task force that were draft bipartisan legislation aimed at ending racial violence increasing police accountability and they also want the Department of Justice to reinvigorate its Civil Rights Division I mean there's a lot of things that need to happen again at the policy level but it is a a deeply tangled wire of headphones in your pocket you know you know when you put your headphones in your pocket and all of a sudden it's like how did that happen well we've got a really nasty knot we got a one tangle I'm curious I mean I I shared my own going back to this idea of anti racism a few guys any have any more thoughts there I mean you guys grew up in the south I grew up in in liberal New York and it still was inescapable yeah I mean I I can certainly look back and I grew up there was maybe one black kid per grade at most you know so that means there's a handful of black families in the town I grew up on and I remember I this kid is super smart his name is les he was a trumpet player so I did man right so I was very close with him but I was even close to them as a four or five year old and I remember in preschool that he was really mad about something and I asked him why he's so mad because I'm a five-year-old and he's like they're making fun of me and I'm like that's not fair and he's like it's not fair and then I heard the ways they were making fun of him and they were making fun of him because he was black and they're making fun of him because his head was shaved because you know black hair versus white hair you know there's just so many layers of what was going on and I remember being upset for him but also not really understanding why he would be so angry at that because I'm like people I you know people call me names and I didn't understand it and even as I grew older I couldn't quite always understand why people were so mad and and now as an older person an educated person I can see because he even at five was being oppressed by children which means he was oppressed by those children's parents and for all those people who are looking at these posts and they're writing these things ask yourself if that's something you learned on your own or if somebody else taught you that and think about why you have the beliefs you have for all of us you know are you doing your research are you reading are you seeing things or are you echoing something that somebody has told you for a long time and you can't accept that maybe that isn't true there's so many bigger problems to be addressing than what I'm writing on Twitter if I say that I don't like the mayor I'm saying I don't like the mayor right now but you should it's sort of like why are you spending your time yelling at me why don't you look at what else is going on at a system level of of you know corporate inequality you like why are you protecting like nordstrom they're fine not only they have enough money to handle it they have enough insurance to handle it no no and also they didn't these these are businesses that didn't care to protect their workers during a pandemic but they care to protect their stuff and that should say a lot and that you know that's it's just crazy to me and this is a system of they care more about the money and people who also don't have money aren't even upset about those people who are keeping them from having money you you middle-class people in the south you're not wealthy you're not going to be a millionaire these things you see happen aren't gonna happen for you and you defend them as if it will and it's upsetting because you're you you have been manipulated and I feel bad for you and that's why sometimes I argue with people and I try to present cases and sometimes I just say [ __ ] off because I'm very upset first of all there's a reason it's harder to get a permit to prote in Beverly Hills right so that it's the expensive stores that are not getting disrupted but also all these people decrying the destruction of mom-and-pop stores on Fairfax right by where I live I was looking at what stores they were cleaning up there was one person helping and in the little store there were 15 people cleaning up the bank the bank is fine banks aren't your [ __ ] friend guys they don't look out for you they are not your friend you want to say something real quick about the anti-racist thing I think that although we are in a position where we have for me 34 years of life that I could look back on and that I've been able to grow to get to this point I'm going to say a lot of things that will feel very pointed and that are maybe a build up of that so keep that in mind there are three statements that I think that people should learn to not either say or learn to understand the implications of which is one don't make this about race girl this has been a race since the beginning just because you have disassociated from the situation doesn't mean it has not always been about [ __ ] race - I don't know what to say learn what to say and three I think the big other thing is I don't want to talk about race and that has been something that has been in my Asian American perspective forced upon me since I was a baby every single either oppression towards me and worse oppression towards my black friends has been glazed over with someone in power whether it be the school principal or someone's parents or the the person who's running the company to say don't talk about race don't make it about race that is a that is a a band-aid of oppression that has been put over so many different conversations that need to be happening in families in work places in schools every single [ __ ] day and even if you think you're on a liberal progressive side I mean we worked out a company that actually had groups dedicated to race and to sexuality we let this idea of representation be put on the onus of those of color of black people to say let them talk about it and solve it that is what happened at BuzzFeed it was with the best intentions but in the end because I'm a person of color and a LGBT person I was part of a million more conversations than my white straight co-workers every day about if we should even talk about race or sexuality and videos or present it and you might think that's unique but that same type of glazing over of smoothing out issues happens in so many different schools and workplaces in different ways this idea of well let's have this pony come out and either and be the representation and also like let us feel better as swage our guilt I think it's just hard to think that even just as for me being asian-american and gay that I have allowed people to tell me when I can speak on things and usually when I can speak on things it's because they want to show that they have a pony who's representing that alternative voice and that's been since I was a baby and to think that black people have experienced this to the umpteenth degree historically we are playing with a broken system and that even in the way that you speak about it you might have been contributing to that system and I think that that's the one thing we can control especially as young people who are learning about this today you know because you just have to feel that the discomfort you feel even talking about this now or listening to this just does not compare to the historical discomfort put upon an entire community you shouldn't an oppressed nation you should be uncomfortable we can no longer cater to a majority's comfort other wring the meaning Laura fiying the pain of black people in this country is so much a part of the fabric of our daily lives and it's even happening during these protests and I think that people have to remember that there is no way we can get out of this without explicitly saying I'm going to make this about race I do know what to say and there is no misconstruing that a hundred percent I stay and with the black community and black lives matter there's just no there is no middle ground anymore as you all know we could go on and on we're very upset we will continue to go on and on if you see us online we're gonna keep trying to help uplift voices that need to be uplifted and also continue donating to the people in places that need to support right now we encourage you to do whatever you can if that means going on protesting in your community if that means making a sign and sitting in your yard for an hour or just retweeting other people who need to be retweeted make sure you if you don't stand for this at a citizen of this country you make that known and every way that you can because it is not all of us being attacked all the time right now but it could be and it seems like Trump might ask for that he literally said for citizens to take up their second Amendment right that is basically saying hey citizens go kill each other that's crazy that's our president that is the truth but if you're looking for some advice in your life about how to address things miles bouncing your way has advice it'll go for miles miles go to a [ __ ] protest you stinky turkey yeah I got two pieces of advice one go to a protest there all the time they're in your city baby protesting is sexy it's the way you freaking fight back black lives matter and that's important you should go to a [ __ ] protest I have so many liberal white friends who are so quick to talk about [ __ ] great causes but I have not seen them go to a protest yet go to a protest a stinky Turkey if you're available if you're able you're healthy and you have you know the family situation that allows you to go go to a protest secondly look at your [ __ ] bank statement take a look at your bank statement and look at the [ __ ] that you pay for look at that [ __ ] baby and match that and [ __ ] donate to one of all the amazing causes that's going on right now there are four the link to we will yeah a collection of resources in the description of this episode on YouTube and if you're not watching it if you're listening it'll be in the description to PI the scripts descrip pop the scripts because I bought a [ __ ] gaming PC at the beginning of quarantine I can afford to put a couple hundred bones in the freaking bag and I understand that it's different for everybody but look at your [ __ ] and really think about like I spend money on this [ __ ] I order it out and I really didn't need to I had [ __ ] food at home and match that [ __ ] and donate it because the government is not giving any money to these things that matter and so now we have to [ __ ] pick up the slack unfortunately because we piles wallis advice per usual and I will just add I agree with everything said but if you feel that you are not in a position to go out and protest if you are immunosuppressed or if you are terrified of crowds and having xiety there are a lot of valid reasons there are a lot of things that you can do from home amplify voices donate you know put your money where your ideals are and just just be an ally in a way because at this moment silence is violence so whatever it is that you do to choose to be part of this moment understand that if you choose to not be part of this moment that is a privilege and if and just focus on where your outrage is I have a quote I'd love to leave us with mmm if I'm a better not a better Navi I'm okay no it's not this is from there was a lot of look we spoke on it briefly but president Trump cleared out peaceful protesters in front of the White House with tear gas and flash bangs and stun grenades and rubber bullets so that he could go get a photo-op many of the Republican members of Congress and the Senate were asked about this and they either did not comment or as Ted Cruz said when asked if what he saw by the White House was an abuse of power he said quote by the protesters yes so this is from Robert o Paxton from the anatomy of fascism which he wrote in 2004 an essential step in the fascist march to acceptance and was to persuade law and order conservatives and members of the middle class to tolerate fascist violence as a harsh necessity in the face of left provocation a lot is going to happen this week a lot will continue to happen we will continue to be speaking about this on our own social media and we welcome you to do the same please remain aware and vigilant and keep standing up for what is right I don't believe we're gonna have a song on this outro because we frankly would rather that you sit with your feelings even if they are uncomfortable wrestle with the ways in which your privilege has impacted your life and we'll see you next time and if you see some [ __ ] lady like sharing an MLK quote just know that he was there out there [ __ ] fighting back it wasn't about sitting around kumbaya about this [ __ ] happening [Music] you [Music]

Channel: TryPods

Views: 160,507

Keywords: tryguys, keith, ned, zach, eugene, habersberger, fulmer, kornfeld, yang, buzzfeedvideo, buzzfeed, ariel, ned & ariel, comedy, education, funny, try, learn, fail, experiment, test, tryceratops, black lives matter, protest, riots

Id: nADAICAeAT0

Length: 61min 14sec (3674 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020